"There is a pigeon walking in the garden." I heard my sister utter that sentence as she was leaving the office I am working in. She delivers food for me once a day on her way to her work and picks up the clean lunch box after work as she heads to her apartment. She moved to a rental apartment with her mom before the pandemic lockdown started on Chaitra 10th of BS 2076 (March 23, 2020). I had returned just the day before it all locked down. I was at Sathya Sai Siksha Sadan training English teachers for elementary classes in the Whole Brain Teaching method, developed in California.
Since then the small, old zinc sheet-covered room has served as my office to carry on my studies and service work. Ever since I returned to Nepal on February 1, 2007, a month after the truce was signed between the then PM of Nepal and the murderous rebel leader Prachanda, financed and sheltered by the Indian government of Congress Party for more than a decade. This house and the land were the property my grandmother built for us so that we would always have a home. She was one of the kindest and clever women I have known and taught me many important lessons in life through witty proverbs.
When it was built 63 years ago, this place was just a thick forest roamed by wild elephants, tigers, and whatnot. It was one of the first houses built and at three stories, it was one biggest at the time. Many prominent people have stayed here as renters and gone to build their own homes here as they prospered. I was born and raised here until the age of 10 when I won a scholarship and went to a boy's boarding school in Kathmandu. It was an elite school modeled after Eton College in the UK and managed by the British at that time. I was the first batch. I graduated from there listed on the board of top 10 in 1980. Since then I have hardly ever lived in this home that has sentimental values for me.
I went out and asked my sister where the pigeon was. She pointed to it. I bent down and picked it up. The pigeon tried to struggle a bit. It was healthy but when I approached it, it did not fly away, it just tried to run. Oh, oh, I thought. I had a similar case before, about six months ago. I had picked up a pigeon that could not fly and sheltered it inside the office to keep it safe from the neighborhood cats. Then I had moved it to a wide area on the top floor of the house, but on the third day, I had found it with its head missing pulled into a crack. Apparently, instead of a cat, a rat had feasted on it. That was a lesson for me.
Saved from the cat, attacked by the rat
I have become a mother to the animals in the neighborhood, sort of. I feel glad to take care of them and talk to them. The grandma's house is not habitable anymore since the earthquake of 2015. It was one of the thousands that were damaged. It is not safe for humans, but for animals, it is a god-sent. Cats give birth and raise their kittens in different rooms on the third floor and the attic. Pigeons nest and loiter around the balcony, roof, and windows. Rats run amock everywhere. It is an amusement park for them.
The second floor is relatively safe so I have my small room and a guest room. It should have been demolished and replaced with a new commercial building. That could not happen because it takes a lot of money that no one had saved, but the more pressing reason was that it had gone into litigation.
Paru. the first flightless pigeon taking a walk in the office
The kid from my youngest brother, now working in Dubai, when he was married to his first wife had a son. He is now in the British Gurkha army but he had filed a lawsuit claiming that his father was the only heir and he deserved half of the property. Since we had all assumed that only father's property was divided between the children, but not if it was of the mother. My grandmother had passed it to her only surviving child, her daughter. We had remained confident until the court ruled in the complainant's favor and divided the property between the six members of the family - our parents and four siblings, and the plaintiff was to get only one-fifth of the portion given to his father. So, he ended being awarded 1/30th of the total property, which obviously means nothing compared to his claim, but the damage was done. The property had been put on sale so that everyone could get on with their separate lives. My plan was to get my share worth $100,000 and then head over to the hills to start an Ashram, Prem Sai Ashraya (Divine Love Abode). My ultimate mission is to build a shelter for all homeless and abandoned living beings, a place fit for Prem Sai, a place for love for all who have no one to care for them.
This kitten was deliberately left by its mother in my room because I had spoken to it and asked.
I share the haunted-looking house in one of the prime real-estate locations with the freest of God's creation. I feed the pigeons twice daily, and they come knocking on the zinc sheet of the office when I am even a few minutes late. During the lockdown, the cats in the neighborhood really had a terrible time feeding themselves. A kitten that played in my lap had grown into a slender cat and gone to be independent. I had named her Sabari. Many times during the lockdown she came asking me for milk. I felt sorry for her to see her emaciated frame and stomach shrunk into her bones. The last time I saw her was also when I felt like crying. Her left eye had been busted, probably because someone hit her with something.
Sabari affected by lockdown, emaciated and left eye damaged (November 29, 2020)
So, I am used to taking care of the insects and other animals that might find themselves in trouble in the little garden outside my small office. I see some ants, flies and other insects drowned in the water I place out for birds to drink. I have even taken out a fly that managed to survive and flew away. So, it was not a new thing for me to take in the new pigeon that had no strength to fly to the roof and fluttered around in the garden, and sometimes got stuck in trap-like holes and branches.
The beetle is looking for a spot to get a better view of the Sathya Sai painting made by our girl.
The pigeon spent the night in the office where I had left some grain for it and some water. I even retrieved a cardboard box that I had used to house kittens and injured birds before. The next morning, when I opened the office door, the pigeon was still in one piece. It walked around the room as I sat for my computer work. I tried to keep the door closed with a small crack so that it would not be able to go out. I know it was waiting for an opening to escape. That would not be in its best interest, though. However, it did manage to find an escape as I was making my way out to fill some drinking water from the tap outside. It flew off but fell to the ground and got stuck halfway down a tree, among some leaves. Clearly, it did not have strong wings to make it to the roof.
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I went and rescued it from the hole it had got stuck in. I brought it back and put it on my lap for a little while. It sat quietly for a while. Then I suddenly realized that I should give it a dose of animal combo and see it gains its strength. I quickly prepared some water with CC1.1 Animal tonic. I also added some grains I keep for the pigeons. So, whether it ate or drank, it could get some of the combos into its system. I was talking to it constantly, and I finally dipped its beak in the water 2-3 times so that the water could get on its tongue, and it did. I put down the pigeon on the floor and told it to walk around or feed or drink from the little aluminum disposable packing.
The pigeon listening to my talk and explanation about the combo.
Then, a couple of kids came to the office and they also saw the pigeon. One of the kids got busy on the computer learning to type. I went with the other to do some cleaning of the balcony that had grown lichen from the constant monsoon rain. I put the pigeon inside the cardboard box and closed the lid.
A couple of hours later, when I returned to the office, I looked inside the box, and it was empty. I looked around the office for the pigeon, but it was nowhere. The door had been left open, so clearly, it had managed its escape. Everyone loves to be free, and not bound by restrictions. I went out in the garden and checked all the areas but could not find the pigeon. I concluded that it had gained enough strength to fly to the roof so had managed its escape, or found its true freedom and the ability to be with the other pigeons who loitered on the roof and the balcony. So, what was the difference between the two escapes it attempted. I would like to believe that the combo had something to do with it. It seems logical to conclude that it became strong enough to fly.
I just hope to see it someday and recognize it when all the pigeons come to feed twice a day on the roof of our office.
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